For wanting to know your hobbies? (Lighthearted)

[FeltCarrot]

What is the mystique behind everyone’s hobbies? Why can posters not just say what it is, instead I’m left imagining pole dancing, knitting, bell ringing, only fans…

Or maybe I just need a hobby to stop me obsessing over everyone else’s hobbies!

Extreme ironing.

My favourite is when I do the ironing when abseiling.

YANBU

Also the posters who are like "My/DH's hobby, which I can't name because its very outing". And then it turns out they're involved in an entirely mundane activity like running or cycling or book club which is wholly predictable for a middle-class woman/man.

Twats.

True. It's always something very common and predictable.

I speak as a middle-class woman with wholly mundane and predictable hobbies.

My hobbies out of the home are boxing, kickboxing, book club and dogging.
My hobbies at home are paper crafting and reading fiction.

My hobby is secret as it's very outing. It doesn't involve Lycra.

I've never heard an adult use the word 'hobbies' about themselves in real life. For me it's a purely mumsnet phenomenon.

I agree people should just say 'Zumba' or 'community garden' or 'cycling' or whatever.

When people say 'hobby' it makes me think of a child TBH.

I cannot even begin to imagine how up yourself you have to be to think your hobby is unique enough to be outing, it's such a bizarre phenomenon.

My hobbies are climbing, kayaking, horse riding and crochet. I'm sure if my husband read this he might think "Oh that might be Wife" but equally thousands of other husbands might think the same.

What is the difference between a “hobby” and a “sporting interest”?
Hobbies to me are things like stamp collecting, scrapbooking, reading, films.
Sporting interest…anything that gets you out of puff!

The thing is, if you are not a serial name changer, and are on here regularly, then the more bits of info you add about your / your family / your life / your work / the area you live / and yes, your hobbies, the more identifiable it makes you.
Sometimes it is relevant (talking about how you pronounce something or slang words for things is geography dependent - or sometimes baby names, someone will say "I am Welsh / Irish / etc and it is pronounced X") so you mention where you live. Then sometimes people want to know what something costs in diff parts of the country. Then sometimes you job comes into conversations. Or your dc's ages or the number of dc you have. If you start adding other info that isn't necessarily needed to make a point, then it is just more and more jigsaw pieces.
So, living in Manchester - fine. It's a big City.
Living in Manchester and being a nurse - narrows it quite a lot
Living in Manchester, being a nurse and having 3 teenagers - people begin to wonder if it might be 'Jane' behind that user name.
Then you start adding in that you used to do bell-ringing but are now really into long distance cycling begins to get pretty outing.

@UsingChangeofName hit the nail on the head.

Every time this comes up, someone jokingly references mine and my husband's hobby as something so outlandish it really would out you.

So I'm not saying.

@UsingChangeofName I get you totally. But that's easily navigable by just name changing occasionally. You don't have to be a serial name changer. But when you feel you're building a full and outing picture under one username, just change to another.

Having said that, I don't think MNers are really paying attention to, and gathering up, various bits of information about posters enough to get a full picture of their lives and potentially identify them.

I never used to think so either @SpeshulKay .
I don't tend to look at who says what, I just join in the chat / discussion, or answer a question if I feel I can help, but you'd be surprised how often people do do searches on posters.
Personally I think it is a bit weird, but there is a lot of weird out there.

I agree with @UsingChangeofName , it's something that I in a previous job we referred to as 'jigsawing' - the risk of being identified by giving away small bits of information. For context I was working in a prison so there was good reason to be careful about what personal information you gave away/allowed to be overheard!

My hobbies aren't that unusual on their own but put them together and they start to become identifiable. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, capoeira, strength training, following a particular band (to the extent of following them around the country) and feminist cross stitching. If I throw in my profession and region it'd be pretty obvious if anyone IRL knows me on here.

People can work out all sorts. Somebody one identified a road from my description of it on here...

Bell ringing here..

Are you going to be ringing in the new King @topcat2014 ?